LG 31EL9500 31″ OLED TV Unveiled At IFA 2010

By Jonathan Sutton7 September 2010, 1:35 am GMT

Having released a 15-inch OLED TV for sale to the public (albeit at a whooping price of £1,500) back in April, LG Electronics has gone one better at the IFA 2010 trade show in Berlin. Boasting a (diagonal) screen size of 31 inches, the LG 31EL9500 OLED TV delivers more than twice the amount of on-screen real estate compared to the company’s previous 15-inch model, which is an achievement in itself considering that no other TV manufacturer currently offers a commercially available OLED TV since Sony withdrew its 11-inch XEL-1 from the Japanese retail market earlier this year.

LG 31EL9500

The LG 31EL9500 sports a full HD 1920 x 1080 AMOLED (active-matrix OLED) screen measuring only 2.9mm deep, with all the necessary processing components and connection ports stowed away in the swivelling, detachable table-top stand. The LG 31EL9500 is also 3D-capable, but obviously this requires viewers to don a pair of compatible 3D glasses.

Priced at 7,000 Euros (around £5,850), the LG EL9500 will go on sale in March next year on a limited run: in Germany only 500 units will be released, with similar drought expected to hit other European countries as well.

OLED TV Technology

OLED (a.k.a. organic LED) TV is set to be the next big thing in HDTV technology. Its emissive display characteristic promises supremely deep blacks that surpass even the legendary Pioneer Kuro plasmas, while the organic compound used means that OLED TV are capable of rich yet realistic colours. Moreover, OLED technology itself allows for ultra-thin screens (the LG 31EL9500 for example is only 2.9mm thick in depth), wide viewing angles and very low energy consumption. Given these appealing properties, it’s easy to understand why videophiles think that OLED TV is truly the future.

Unfortunately, because OLED technology used for large-screen displays is still a work in progress, mass production remains for the most parts not commercially viable. Hopefully as the technology matures and consumer awareness/demand grows, economies of scale will kick in to make OLED TV more affordable to the public. LG certainly cannot be faulted for its attempt in launching the 31EL9500.